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You greet Arashi eagerly, and she nuzzles you demurely in return. She doesn't want to take away from your valuable time, but you assure her that her feelings are important too!
-
Arashi was born alongside her rather...peculiar brother. She tried to grow close to him, to bond with him, but he was always so...aloof. Distant. He never spoke, not once, and there was always a faraway look in his eyes, glinting with a sort of wisdom not unlike the kind found in an elder's eyes. He was particularly independent, too, preferring to keep to himself, sleep by himself, even eat by himself.
Yet, when he was struck by lightning, it still hurt. She didn't know why. They were as separated as two lions from completely different prides, he'd only ever looked in her general direction with unfamiliarity. Yet, seeing the charred, burnt head fur sent pangs of guilt and grief rippling through her small body. But no one else seemed to feel the same; her mother only mourned up until his funeral ceremony, and considering his distant nature from, well, everything, none of the others seemed particularly invested in said ceremony. Mother would often tell her, when he was brought up, that he had been sickly, that was why he kept to himself, was the way he was. There was something wrong with him.
Eventually, she stopped acknowledging his existence at all. It was as if the young cub who'd been struck directly in the head by lightning had been wiped from all memory. The worst part though was that she still remembered. Everything, that is, except for his name.
This was a great challenge for her, growing up. She started acted out, desperate and insisting that someone acknowledge that she had, at one point, a brother. She wasn't making things up!
She didn't understand why she cared so much. They'd never spoken and had hardly interacted, but he was still her litter mate. Yet by that logic, surely her mother would remember him too, right? Probably mourn him even more.
She managed to tamp down her frustration as she grew older, channeling that into becoming the best hunter she could be. Still, thoughts of a little cub with a charred head never left the back of her mind. Until one day, she met a traveler at the edges of the hunting grounds. Their pride hadn't really housed many travelers, not that she could think of anyway, so she was wary but eager to hear some stories.
Perhaps the most interesting story was that of an abandoned prison far beyond their pride lands, a place for the worst of the worst to be sent and guarded over. It had been abandoned long ago, but nothing was heard from the prisoners ever again. There were rumors, however, that the prisoners' descendants had taken up residence in the sheltered canyons, which were supposedly impossible to leave anyway.
But the most important, intriguing part? Still more rumors of a queen who had stepped up into power there, claiming the prison to be safe for all cubs. Immediately, she couldn't help but think of him. She thanked the traveler, bringing her a meal in appreciation, although the traveler had one last warning for her: "You must never go there, Ray of Sun. It is impossible to leave, and the queen, the prison Warden, she is cunning and cruel. Any lost souls who find themselves in that horrid place-Crook's Hollow-must be left behind and forgotten about, lest you be dragged down with them."
The warning rang around in Arashi's head for three days. But on the third night, she had made her mind up. She had to leave. She knew she wasn't crazy; her brother existed and she would find him, find his name, and do whatever she could to get him to warm up to her, open up a little bit. He'd lived in her mind rent free for countless moons, and now it was time to collect her dues.
So she set off, heading out across her pridelands and beyond. She sought out the wisdom and shelter of various prides, relying on their stories and folklore for guidance to find this fabled prison.
Eventually, though, she managed to find a solid lead; Through the Silent Woods, across the Scorching Steppes, over Lost River, and finally after navigating the Labyrinth of the Shrouded Queen would she find herself at Crook's Hollow.
She left behind the ancient, hidden, yet thriving pride that had given her a solid reference, thanking them sincerely. It was only in searching out the Silent Woods that she realized that she herself had become a traveler, searching out stories in trade for her well-developed hunting skill and stories of her own.
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Silent woods, ash and bone,
All around, life Decays into stone.
She repeated the lines to a long forgotten song or nursery rhyme about the forest she was looking for. The full song wasn't known, but it did tell her what she was looking for; stone. Once living things that had decayed, died, and petrified. So she continued in her search, the ground no longer aching at her now toughened paws. Eventually though, the ground began to hurt again, the pebbles underneath her easily confused with the stony grass that stabbed at her, fragments chipped off into jagged pieces.
Trees loomed up around her, barren of leaves and solidified into stone. True to its name, the woods were eerily silent, almost suffocatingly so. She felt dwarfed in such a massive environment, the trees even barren as they were piercing the heavens. And the sort of shaded fog seemed to lurk at the corners of her eyes just and just at the edge of her vision certainly wasn't helping the unease that settled thickly into her belly. Her fur prickled, standing up nervously as she frequently threw anxious glances over her shoulder, feeling as if she was being watched. Still, she held her head up proud-she was on a mission. She was the only one who remembered her brother, and so she was the only one who could give him any sort of rest. She would not let some silly fear deter her.
She carried on through the forsaken forest, trudging through light, never ending rain and falling ash. Her paws grew muddy, ash clinging to her fur, seemingly falling from the trees themselves. But eventually she found herself cresting a hill to find herself gazing into a sort of clearing, sheltered by overgrown boulders. Yet her eyes immediately latched upon the circle of statues at the center of the clearing. The largest stood on a rock jutting out of the ground at the head of the clearing, gazing down at his stony pride mates.
She felt a shiver pass through her just then, swallowing nervously as she picked her way into the clearing, skirting around the edges to avoid the assembled lions. The statues were too realistic, their hollow eyes gazing emptily ahead, some perched in poses that would have otherwise been impossible to keep balanced. Sure, she'd seen the petrified trees, but really only then did, all around, life Decays into stone, make sense. A whole pride of lions, wiped out. The rain almost made it seem as if they were crying, weeping for lost life as droplets dribbled down stony fur.
What in the name of the gods could have caused something like this? Something so unnatural, her every instinct screaming at her to run, flee, escape before she met the same fate.
Nervously, she slunk towards the far side of the clearing, keeping her eyes glued on the statues as if at any moment they would spring to life and attack her for trespassing.
"Wait."
A soft, quiet voice struck sharply through the clearing, noticeably disrupting the silence. After so long of only hearing only the faint pittering of drizzling rain, the soft patters of her paws, keeping to the quiet, and her own breath, an actual voice felt wrong.
Still, she turned, eyes scanning the clearing. It wasn't until she'd made a full circle that she finally saw the small white cub, perched upon the boulders overlooking what she presumed was the leader's announcement stone over the clearing where he now forever stood.
After only the monotones of the grey, ashen forest, the practically glowing white pelt was almost welcome. Almost.
She was still incredibly unnerved; such a young cub, who would dare let their child be in such a dangerous place alone? And she was fairly certain it hadn't been there until she'd turned back around.
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